Comments (4)

By Larry, March 4, 2014 6:53 pm

Nolan Porter

Listen/Download NF Porter – Keep On Keeping On

Greetings all

If you – like moi – spends an inordinate amount of time listening to, thinking about, researching and digging for music, it is easy to become jaded, or at least top have your senses dulled to a certain degree.

As a result, it’s easy to miss some of the subtler wonders out there, which is why you have to engage in periodic reappraisal.

That said, the other side of the coin is that the truly remarkable records cut through that fog in remarkable ways.

I first heard NF Porter’s ‘Keep On Keeping On’ years ago when it was included on a comp of favorites from the storied Golden Torch soul club in the UK.

That collecting included a lot of amazing records, but none stood out more starkly than ‘Keep on Keeping On’.

It’sone of those records that I have often found myself spinning repeatedly, letting the vibe sink in a little more deeply with each play.

Recorded in 1971 by Nolan Porter (billed at different times as Nolan, NF Porter, and Frederick II), the record made it into the R&B Top 40 at the end of 1971, Porter’s second such hit that year.

Porter came up in Southern California, getting his start as a classical singer, before meeting producer Gabriel Mekler’s sister while in college.

Mekler signed him to his Lizard label, where he would record the ‘No Apologies’ LP in 1971*.

Porter was backed in the studio by various and sundry members of the Mothers of Invention and Little Feat (Lowell George, Jimmy Carl Black and Roy Estrada) as well as Johnny Guitar Watson.

‘Keep On Keeping On’ – co-written by Porter and Richie Flowers but originally only credited to the latter – is a record of unique power.

Though Porter’s delivery is purely soulful, there is an underlying foundation of rock and even psychedelia to the song (dig the backward guitar) that imbues it with a certain darkness.

The ominous, propulsive rhythm guitar and the tom-toms create a thick, often thunderous platform from which Porter launches his high tenor into the stratosphere.

Its strong beat has made is a perennial favorite with the Northern Soul crowd, as is his (much rarer/more expensive/excellent) 1972 ABC single ‘If I Could Only Be Sure’ (a US R&B Top 30 hit).

Porter recently ended a long, self-imposed retirement to return to the stage in the US and the UK, and recent video demonstrates that he is still in fine voice.

I hope you dig this amazing record, and I’ll see you all on Friday

Keep the faith

Larry

*Porter would also compose ‘Funky LA’ for labelmates Paul Humphrey and the Cool Aid Chemists

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, March 2, 2014 1:18 pm

Roger and the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pt1 (Seven B)
Professor Longhair – Big Chief Pt2 (Watch)
Bobby Marchan – Shake Your Tambourine (Cameo/Parkway)
Diamond Joe – Gossip Gossip (Sansu)
Eddie Bo – Hook and Sling Pt1 (Scram)
Lee Dorsey – Four Corners Pt1 (Amy)
Dixie Cups – Two Way Poc A Way (ABC)
Earl King – Street Parade (Kansu)
Meters – Cardova (Josie)
David Batiste and the Gladiators – Funky Soul Pt2 (Instant)
Bobby Williams – Boogaloo Mardi Gras Pt2 (Capitol)
Curly Moore – Sophisticated Cissy (Instant)
Ernie K Doe – Here Come the Girls (Janus)
Larry Darnell – Son of a Son of a Slave (Instant)
Explosions – Hip Drop Pt1 (Gold Cup)
Rubaiyats – Omar Khayyam (Sansu)
Warren Lee – Funky Belly (Wand)
Willie Tee – Sweet Thing (Gatur)
Danny White – Natural Soul Brother (SSS Intl)
Lee Dorsey – Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further (Polydor)
Oliver Morgan – Roll Call (Seven B)
Eddie Bo – Can You Handle It (Bo Sound)

Listen/Download -Funky16Corners Presents Boogaloo Mardi Gras! – 85MB Mixed Mp3/192K

Greetings all.

Hey everybody!

Guess who paid attention to the calendar and was prepared for Mardi Gras this year?

That’s right, ME!

As a result I dipped back into the archives and resurrected one of my fave mixes, ‘Funky16Corners: Boogaloo Mardi Gras!’

This one is packed from start to finish with a grip of Crescent city killers, including a number of second line favorites. There is a LOT of heat in this one, and if you are inclined to crack open a brew or two  and get your New Orleans-style party on, this should provide a more than adequate soundtrack.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the Faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, February 27, 2014 1:06 pm

Joe Thomas and his lady friends…

Listen/Download Joe Thomas – Chitlins and Cuchifritos

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, so it’s time for our regularly scheduled announcement that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be return to the airwaves of the interwebs Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join me at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes.

The record I bring you today is another one from way back when I first started getting my fingers dusty in the crates of the hinterlands.

Of course, back then I was digging without a portable, and depended on my as yet undeveloped Spidey-sense, as well as a grab bag of visual/verbal clues to lead me down the funky path.

Working with even that somewhat spare tool-kit, it was nigh impossible to pass up a record like Joe Thomas’s ‘Chitlins and Cuchifritos’.

First of all, that title, y’know?

Second, there’s that very groovy Today records label with the big peace sign on it.

How could I pass it up?

Good thing I didn’t, because when I got it home and slipped it under the needle I discovered that the record in question combined some of my favorite flavors.

Number one, it’s funky.

Number two, funky flute! You all know I dig some funky flute, and Joe Thomas (an artist with whom I would become much better acquainted over the years) was one of the best.

‘Chitlins and Cuchifritos’ is a delightful bit of atmospheric Latin-influenced funk, with all of the above listed ingredients wrapped inside a very funky bass line, as well as a chorus singing the title over and over again.

It is, like the Willie Bobo number we opened with this week, very nice for the ears and the feet (should you choose to dance) as well.

I’ve had this record in my crates for a long, long time and I still dig it the most.

I hope you do too, and I’ll see you all next week.

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 25, 2014 2:21 pm

Listen/Download Chet Poison Ivey and his Fabulous Avengers – The Poo Poo Man

UPDATE: DC Soul authority Kevin Coombe informs me that Bee & Cee was a Washington, DC label, and evidence points to Chet Ivey having operated out of the DC area during the 60s

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another soulful week.

The track I bring you today is not just very groovy, but part of a larger, as yet unsolved (at least to me) puzzle.

I first encountered the dulcet tones of Chet Poison Ivey and his Fabulous Avengers back in the early days of my funk 45 safari when I picked up a copy of their 1968 Tangerine 45, ‘Shake a Poo Poo’.

Now, you can be forgiven if the title of the song gave you pause (as it certainly has to many others over the years), but my mind finds its way to the gutter easily, so much so that a record with the phrase ‘poo poo’ is a good thing.

That the record was – a good thing, that is – is the truth.

Now, scatological assumptions aside, I am inclined to believe that the ‘poo poo’ in question has something to do with a dance, or at least the movement of a shapely posterior in the execution thereof.

I choose to believe this because I can’t imagine a legitimate record label (Tangerine was after all Ray Charles’s operation) releasing a record about actual ‘poo poo’, but then again it was the late 60s and everyone was getting freaky and letting it all hang out, so anything is possible.

On the other hand, I have evidence in hand – that being the record you see before you – that Chet was in fact trying to create a dance craze.

There’s not much information out there about Chet Ivey, aside from the obvious discographical stuff, indicating that he started recording R&B in the late 50s, jumping from label to label (ATCO, Arock, ABC/Paramount, Bee & Cee, Tangerine, Fretone and Sylvia) over the course of the next decade and a half.

Though I haven’t been able to date his Bee & Cee sides definitively, there are clues in ‘The Poo Poo Man’ to suggest that it was a follow up/continuation of ‘Shake a Poo Poo’, which would place it at the end of the 60s.

There is some evidence (that being Maurice McKinnies and the Champions ‘Sock a Poo Poo ‘69’) that Chet and the Avengers were not alone.

That said, the records I have (and have heard) indicate that Ivey was a more than capable soul singer/songwriter (the flipside of this 45, ‘Soul Is My Game’ is very groovy indeed) and the band was tight.

Like many journeyman artists, he seemed to have followed the artistic flow of the day, from R&B, to soul and on through funk, departing from the world of vinyl sometime in the mid 70s.

There are also some clues (label info and a recorded tribute to Jerry ‘The Geator’ Blavat) that old Chet may have been a Philly-area cat.*

So, dig the sounds, fire this up on your coffee break, and, you know, shake your poo poo.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 23, 2014 5:12 pm

Willie Bobo (3rd from the right, blue shirt) and the Bo Gents

Listen/Download Willie Bobo and the Bo Gents – Broasted or Fried

Greetings all

The new week is here, and coming off of all of the cold and wetness of the winter, I bring you something warm and funky in which to wrap yourselves.

The name Willie Bobo is surely a familiar one to those of you that dig boogaloo, Latin jazz and all things groovy.

Willie ‘Bobo’ Correa was one of the preeminent Latin percussionists of the 1960s and 70s, recording as a leader and a sideman for a variety of labels, but mostly Verve.

His discography is filled with classics like ‘Spanish Grease’ and ‘Fried Neckbones and Some Homefries’.

Like many boogalooers and soul jazzers of the day, Bobo followed the stylistic wave, and as the rest of the world got funky, so did he.

The track I bring you today hails from his 1971 LP for the Sussex label, ‘Do What You Want To Do’.

Recorded with his band the Bo-Gents,’Do What You Want To Do’ is a killer collection of funky grooves, including the title track, a cool cover of the Beatles ‘Come Together’, and the track I bring you today, ‘Broasted or Fried’.

If the tune sounds familiar, it may be because I included it in a mix some years ago in a version by Clarence Wheeler and the Enforcers.

As it turns out, the song originated in Bobo’s band, written by his keyboardist Reggie Andrew, and then covered by Wheeler et al later in 1971.

The Bo-Gents version is taken at a slightly slower, yet still funky pace, with some groovy Latin percussion (naturally…) pulsing bass and electric piano.

It has enough push for the dance floor (Now Again reissued the track as a 45 in 2004), as well as plenty to dig while grooving between the ears.

I dig it a lot, and I hope you do to.

I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 20, 2014 1:09 pm

Wilbur Bascomb, with bass and pitchfork…

Listen/Download Wilbur Bascomb and the Zodiact – Just a Groove In G

Greetings all

The end of the week is upon us, so I must remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show returns to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always keep up by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

Today’s selection is an old breakbeat favorite that I picked up a few years ago down in Washington, DC.

Wilbur Bascomb and the Zodiact’s ‘Just a Groove In G’ which was released on the Carnival label in 1970, opens with a big, fat drumbreak and moves on into a funky dancefloor jam. It’s the kind of 45 that was being created and cranked out frequently at the time, when the charts were thick with the sounds of James Brown, the Meters and Kool and the Gang.

Bascomb was a bass player who would go on to add his talents to recordings by folks like Jeff Beck, Jack McDuff, Rusty Bryant, Grace Jones and Idris Muhammad.

The tune itself is groovy indeed, with stellar playing from Bascomb, the drummer, organist and the horn section.

The only weak link is the lead guitarist, who sounds like they were either intoxicated, incompetent or just the tiniest bit tone deaf.

It’s not the tightest groove ever laid down, but sometimes a little joie de vivre (which this record has in surplus) makes up for a multitude of sins (including bad guitar playing).

Someone at Carnival must have dug the sounds, since ‘Just a Groove In G’ was issued twice, once on a Bascomb 45 (in 1970), and then again as the b-side of the Three Reasons sweet soul outing ‘Take Me Back’ (the 45 you see above, in 1971).

The song went on to be sampled by both DJ Shadow and the Roots.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 18, 2014 12:30 pm

Jackie Wilson

Listen/Download Jackie Wilson – Whispers (Gettin’ Louder)

Greetings all

How about something a little sweet for the middle of the week?

Jackie Wilson is high on the list of major soul figures that I took for granted for far too long.

He was a consistent hitmaker, placing dozens of records in the charts between 1958 and 1975.

Though a fair amount of those hits crossed over into the pop charts, Wilson was (at least to my ears) damned by the tight programming of oldies radio. Until I started collecting soul 45s, if you’d asked me about Jackie Wilson, I would have known ‘Higher and Higher’ and ‘Lonely Teardrops’, and little else.

Fortunately, over the years I have kept up the search for new sounds, and more and more Jackie Wilson records have found their way into my crates.

The tune I bring you today represented a “comeback’ of sorts for Wilson, making his first trip into the R&B Top 10 since ‘Baby Workout’ in 1963.

Written by Barbara Acklin (then a secretary at Brunswick Records) and David Scott, ‘Whispers (Getting’ Louder)’ is a prime example of the classy sounds that producer Carl Davis was the master of in the 1960s.

It is a particularly interesting record (aside from its obvious quality) because it features both the Funk Brothers and the Andantes, making it a perfect intersection of (moonlighting) Detroit and Chicago sounds.

The arrangement is perfection, with guitar and vibes pushed along by comparatively raw sounding drums, all juxtaposed with sweeping strings and horns.

It is one of Wilson’s finest sides, and went into the R&B Top 5 (grazing the Pop Top 10) in October of 1966.

‘Whispers (Getting’ Louder)’ was covered by Erma Franklin in 1970 (with another Jackie Wilson cover, ‘(I Get the) Sweetest Feeling’ on the flipside).

It is a groovy record indeed, and I hope you dig it.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, February 16, 2014 1:47 pm

Jay Berliner

Listen/Download Jay Berliner – Stickball

Greetings all

I hope everyone is ready to start the week feeling fine and funky.

The track I bring you today is something that has been marinating in my crates for a few years now.

I grabbed a copy of Jay Berliner’s ‘Bananas Are Not Created Equal’ a while back after a friend turned me on to the track you see before you today, ‘Stickball’.

I knew Berliner’s name – he is a prolific studio guitarist with a very long and prestigious resume, including stints with Charles Mingus and Van Morrison (Astral Weeks) – but had no idea he had ever done anything this funky.

Recorded in 1972, under the aegis of arranger Wade Marcus (who also wrote this tune) ‘Bananas…’ featured Berliner and a group of studio heavies working it out on a number of contemporary covers (Temptations, Al Green, Bill Withers) and a couple of excellent, funky originals.

‘Stickball’ opens with Ray Barretto’s congas and Berliner’s guitar, then joined by Cornell Dupree on electric sitar and Paul Griffin on clavinet.

The tune has a thick, jazz-funk groove, with some hot soloing (naturally) by Berliner.

The rest of the album is definitely worth checking out if you happen to find a copy out in the field.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 13, 2014 12:09 pm

Miss Yvonne Fair

Listen/Download Yvonne Fair – Say Yeah Yeah

Greetings all

The end of the week is upon is, so it is once again time to run the flag up the pole and send out the soul signal to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show will be taking to the airwaves of the interwebs this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there at airtime you can always keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes.

I thought I’d end the week with a bang.

The 45 you see before you is one that I picked up many (many) years ago, out in the field for a pittance. If memory serves, I wasn’t even able to give it a listen at the time, having to wait until I got home.

When I did, I could scarcely believe my ears.

The record in question, ‘Say Yeah Yeah’ by Yvonne Fair was a funky, ever so slightly lo-fi banger, and if that was as far as things got, then I’d still be a happy boy.

But wait, there’s more…

When I started to dig around a little, I discovered, much to my surprise that ‘Say Yeah Yeah’ was not only a James Brown production, but it was recorded and released in 1963!?!

You read it right, Nineteen Hundred and Sixty Three, the very same year that the Godfather hit with ‘Prisoner of Love’.

Not even James Brown was this funky that early.

The safe assessment is that ‘Say Yeah Yeah’ was an outlier, a freak occurrence if you will.

Yvonne Fair’s vocal wasn’t in and of itself that odd, even though it was admirably heavy and raw.

Where things get crazy is the drums.

KA-BOOM.

Whoever was playing the drums was beating them like they stole his lunch money, and syncopating the bejeebus out of them as well.

Only the slightly old-timey organ, and the smoother, R&B horn section anchor it in 1963 at all.

Fair recorded with the James Brown organization (recording for King, Dade and Smash) until the mid-60s, after which she resurfaces at Motown in 1969.

She would record with Motown (working with Norman Whitfield for a time) through the 70s, having a string of R&B hits in 1974 and 1975.

She passed away in 1994, only 51 years of age.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 11, 2014 2:18 pm

Eddy G Giles

Listen/Download Eddy G Giles – Eddy’s Go Go Train

Greetings all

Hows about getting your heart started like a gallon of espresso?

I have no earthly idea where I first heard/heard of Eddy G Giles ‘Eddy’s Go Go Train’, but I am more than positive that when I did, my wig was good and flipped.

This, my friends is the good stuff.

Eddy Giles was a Louisiana cat who did most of his recording for the Shreveport, LA-based Murco concern between 1966 and 1969.

He recorded in the standard variety of styles (deep ballads, uptempo soul and proto-funk) from the classic era, and while there is a lot to like in his catalog (see Sir Shambling’s overview) there is nothing quite as explosive as ‘Go Go Train’.

Now, I have to start by saying that this song was recorded elsewhere (slightly differently, see Jackie Paine’s ‘Go Go Train’ on Jetstream and Little Royal’s ‘Soul Train’ on Trius), and it would seem to trace back to James Brown and the Famous Flames mighty take on ‘Night Train’.

I am not sure of the date order of the ‘Go Go Train’ variations, but I have seen references that place Jackie Paine’s version in 1965, and Eddy G Giles in 1967.

The Eddy G Giles take (backed by the Jive 5, clearly not THE Jive Five…) is a hot little stick of dynamite. You have to slap on the headphones (or crank up the volume) and listen to the guitar and (especially) bass winding in and out of each other’s path, along with the drums and organ, and of course Eddy wailing on top of the show.

It is one of those truly great 45s that manages to carry with it the obvious influence of the mighty JB without passing over into mimicry.

Very solid, indeed.

Following his time with Murco, Eddy went on to record a couple of sides for Silver Fox, Stax, Alarm and Custom, with the last one coming out in 1977. He returned to his gospel roots, working as a pastor and gospel DJ in Louisiana.

I hope you dig the sounds and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 9, 2014 12:17 pm

Billy Lee Riley

Listen/Download Megatons – Shimmy Shimmy Walk Pt1

Greetings all

I thought we’d get the week rolling with something from the pride of Pocahontas, Arkansas, the great Billy Lee Riley.

If you have even a passing knowledge of classic rockabilly, the name Billy Lee Riley ought to be familiar.

Riley laid down legendary sides like ‘Flyin’ Saucers Rock and Roll’ and ‘Red Hot’ for Sun Records, both in 1957.

‘Red Hot’ would be revived in the late 70s by Robert Gordon and Link Wray (which is where I first heard it).

Riley and his band the Little Green Men also did a lot of work backing other artists.

In 1962, Riley and his new band (featuring several of the Little Green Men) went into the studio in Memphis, and as the Megatons recorded the record you see before you, ‘Shimmy Shimmy Walk’.

Initially released on the Dodge label, it was eventually picked up and reissued by Checker, where it made it into the Hot 100 later that year.

If the tune sounds familiar, it is because it is a reworking of the R&B standard ‘You Don’t Love Me’.

Originally recorded under that title in 1960 by Willie Cobbs for Mojo records (his version was basically a reworking of Bo Diddley’s 1955 ‘She’s Fine She’s Mine’), it was a local hit n Memphis and was picked up for national distribution by VeeJay.

The song went on to become a rock/blues standard in the 1960s, being recorded by a wide variety of artists, including the Kaleidoscope, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, The Al Kooper/Stephen Stills Super Session, Junior Wells and the Allman Brothers Band as well as the legendary 1967 Jamaican version by Dawn Penn.

The Megatons version features rolling guitar, a very nice reverbed harmonica solo and some groovy combo organ.

It was also released in the UK on Sue, where it became popular with the Mod/soul crowd.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  ________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, February 6, 2014 12:47 pm

Dee Irwin

Listen/Download Dee Irwin – I Can’t Stand the Pain

Greetings all

The end of the week is fast approaching, so it’s time to remind you to tune in to the Funky16Corners Radio Show, this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there at airtime, you ca keep up with the show by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

The tune I bring you today is something I picked up a few years back, and promptly fell in love with.

Big Dee Irwin (aka Erwin, Ervin, full name DiFosco Ervin) recorded for a variety of labels, under a variety of names (or at least spellings) between 1959 and 1978.

He got his start as a member of the Pastels, before starting his solo career for the Hull label in 1959.

Irwin had his only hit in a duet with Little Eva on the old standard ‘Swinging On a Star’, which made it into the Pop Top 40 in 1963 (it was a Top 10 hit in the UK).

He continued to record for Dimension, 20th Century Fox, Roulette, Fairmount and others before hooking up with Imperial in 1968.

Irwin recorded two solo 45s for the label, as well as three duet 45s (all very cool) with Mamie Galore in 1968 and 1969.

Today’s selection was his second solo outing for Imperial, coming out in 1968. ‘I Can’t Stand the Pain’, written by Maurice Dollison (aka Cash McCall) and Monk Higgins, arranged by Higgins and co-produced by Higgins and Irwin (credited on the label as Ervin), is one of those records that really ought to have been a much bigger deal that it was.

‘I Can’t Stand the Pain’, pushed along by an insistent bass (I’d love to know who the bassist is), combines a great vocal by Irwin (nice female backing singers, too) and a fantastic arrangement by Higgins, featuring flute, strings and a powerful rhythm section.

Despite its obvious quality, this seems to be one of those records that just slipped through the cracks, failing to chart anywhere, never gathering the kind of following inclusion on a Top DJs set list can inspire (though it does seem to have gotten a UK release on Minit).

‘I Can’t Stand the Pain’ is – like much of Irwin’s catalog – unjustly forgotten, but that’s why Funky16Corners is here, slipping it into your ears so that it might find a home in your heart.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

  _________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.